Trolley-retriever.



I. W. SMITH. TROL-LEY RBTRIEVER. APPLICATION FILED nuns, 1905.

1,1 29,912. Patented M21122, 1915.

THE NORRIS PETERS c0.v PHOI'G-LITHQ. WASHINGTON. D. C.

IRWIN w. SMITH, or DAYTON, OI-IIO.

TBOLLEY-RETRIEVE R.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 2, 1915..

Application filed February 3, 1905. 1 Serial No. 243,915.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, IRWIN W. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Dayton, in the county of Montgomery and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Trolley-Retrievers, of which I declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to improvements in trolley retrievers and has among its objects to provide an improved form of device by which the main retrieving spring may have its tension adjustable at will; also to provide mechanism for limiting the rewinding movement of said main spring; also to provide an improved controlling device for governing the extent of movement of the main spring, this controlling device moving intermittently while the retrieving spring is acting to drive its connected parts continuously; and also to provide devices for permitting ready adjustment of the trolley into position.

I have shown the present inventions as a form of improvement on the devices set forth in my previously issued Patent-No. 760,163 dated May 17 1904, but it will be understood that certain of the inventions broadly claimed herein are applicable to other forms of trolley retrievers.

With the above-mentioned and other" incidental objects in view, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction and combinations of parts, the essential elements of which are set forth in the appended claims and a preferred form of embodiment of which is hereinafter specifically described with reference to the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification.

Of said drawings, Figure 1 represents a vertical cross-section of the device containing the present improvements. Fig. 2 represents a section taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1. looking in the direction of the arrow crossing said line. Fig. 3 represents a section taken on the line 33 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrow crossing said line. Figs. 4' and 5 represent detail views of certain of the operating disks.

The general construction and operation of the present machine is similar to that already described in my aforesaid patent, the trolley rope being coiled around the winding drum 11 and contained between the two plates 12 and 12 the upper end of the trolley rope of course being connected to the trolley in the usual manner. The drum 11 is mounted to turn upon the shaft 13 and a spring 14 attached between the drum and the shaft 13 serves to take up the slack occasioned in the trolley rope by the ordinary fluctuations in the height of the trolley. The shaft 13 extends through to a stationary casing 15 within which is the main retrieving spring 16, this spring being attached at one end to the stationary casing 15 and at the other end to the hub 17 journaled upon an antifriction collar 13 which collar surrounds the reduced end of the shaft 13 and serves as a bearing for the hub 17. The

shaft 13 does not rotate, its inner end having a square seat in the casing 15 as shown in Fig. 1. This hub 17 extends through a circular face plate 18 which is attached to and covers one side of the casing 15. Fast to the side of the plate 12 is a doubleheaded pawl 20 (see Fig. 2) which is pivoted at its middle portion at 21 to the plate 12 and is formed with two heads 22 and 23 arranged to cooperate with a ratchet wheel 24, which wheel turns loosely upon the shaft 13 and is situated adjacent to the plate 12. This ratchet wheel 24: has fast to it a cam disk 25 (see also Figs. 3 and 5) which is arranged to cooperate with a trip pawl 26 pivoted at 27 to the lower end of a latching plate 28 which is arranged to slide vertically and is guided by two headed bolts 29 and 30 which extend through the face plate 18. The latch plate 28 is normally held in downward position by a spring 31. The cam disk 25 is in vertical alinement with the trip pawl 26 as shown in Fig. 1, so that upon the rotation of said cam disk in the direction shown by the dotted arrow in Fig. 3, the disk will cam against the beveled portion of the pawl 26 and since the opposite side of the pawl bears directly against the plate 28, the effect of the camming action upon the pawl will be to raise theplate 28 for the purpose to be described; but upon the rotation of the cam disk 25 in the opposite direction as shown by the full line arrow in Fig. 3 the cam disk will simply force the pawl 26 about its pivotal point against the tension of its spring 32 and will not have any lifting effect upon the latch plate 28.

Returning to the double-headed pawl 20, it will be seen that when the trolley rope 10 is pulled outward in the direction shown by the dotted arrow in Fig. 2 the entire drum 11 will turn in the direction of said arrow and therefore the pawl 20 will be carried around with the drum. A spring-33 acting v 24 ;but with slow movement of the drum 11 theshape and position of the pawl is such that the head '22 is'withdrawn from the path of said teeth without engaging the same, until a quick movement is given to the pawland then the momentum caused by the violent striking'ofthe head 23 against the teeth of thewheel 24 will cause the head 22- to enga-gethe teeth on the other side of the ratchetwheel and lock the pawl 20 to said ratchet wheel sothat the latter will begin-to turn with the pawl and with the drum 11;

and this turning of the ratchet wheel 24 will of coursealso turn the cam disk-25. in the direction shown by the dotted arrow in Fig.

24 are formed integrally, and the effect'of vthis will be to-lift upward the latching plate 28- in the manner above described.

' The general construction of these parts so far described is practically the same as that set forth in my aforesaid patent to which reference may be had for a more detailed description. In; .the present improvements the retrieving of the trolley is effected by u-the following additional devices which differ from those described in the aforesaid pa'tent Fast upon the aforesaid hub 17 and disk 40,t'he shape 'of which is best shown in "-Fig. 4; The 'single'tooth 41 of this disk engages n otches42 (see Fig. 3) formed in the periphery of an intermittently movable con- .trolling' gear 43, the portions of the periphery 'of'this gear 43. between the notches 42 being formed with locking surfaces 44 which are engaged by the periphery of the disk 40 when said disk 40 turns in'the manner to be-pres'ently described, thus holding the intermittently movable disk--43 locked while the disk 40 rotates, until the single tooth/41' engages its next succeeding notch gives the intermittent gear 42 and thereby 43a partial rotation. The disk 40 has fast upon its side a clutch flange 45 (see Fig. 4)

' which cooperates with "a similar clutch ryi ng this clutch flange '46) is loose flange46 (shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5) formed on the side of the cam disk25 and in vertical alinement with the clutch flange 45. Asvb'eforestated the cam disk 25 (carthe shaft 13 but it is spring rotated by means of a spring 47 (see Figs. 1 and 4) adjacent to the face plate 18 is asingle tooth upon surrounding the shaft 13, fast at one end to the disk 40 and at the other to disk 25, to cause the cam disk 25 to turn so as normally to cause the face 48 of the flange 46 to engage the face 48 of the flange )Vhen however the trolley leaves the wire and the trolley rope 10 is pulled out with a sudden jerk, and thereupon the double-headed pawl 20 engages its ratchet wheel 24 to turn the cam disk 25 in the manner above explained, this rotation of the disk 25 will withdraw the face 48 from the face 48 and will now bring the face 49 of the flange 46 into contact withthe face 49 of the flange 45; but in the meantime the rotation ofthe cam disk 25 has lifted the latch plate 28 as heretofore explained and this lifting of the plate 28 withdraws the lug 50 formed on the sidethereof, from the path of the shoulder 51 formed on the locking cam 52 which is fast to the intermittent-gear 43, this intermittent gear and its locking cam 52 being rotatively mounted on the lower guide bolt 29 upon which the plate 28 slides. As soon as this lug 50 has been withdrawn from the path of the shoulder 51 in this manner, it will now be seen that the intermittentgear 43 is free to rotate which it tends to do because of the main retrieving spring 16 which is fast to the hub 17 carrying the single tooth disk 40, so that as soon as the intermittent gear 43 is released in this manner, the single tooth disk 40 is now free to turn in the direction in which the main retrieving spring 16 impels it as shown by the full line arrow in Fig. 3, thereby causing the rotation 'of the intermittent gear 43 in the direction shown by the full line arrow. Upon this reverse rotation of the hub 17, and

single tooth 40, the face 49 of the clutch flange 45 now bears against the face 49 of the flange 46 andturns the cam disk in the direction shown by the full line arrow in Figs. 2 and 3 and thereby of course also turns the ratchet wheel 24 in the same direction, and since the head 22 of pawl 20 is still in engagement with the teeth of this gear 24, the rotation of thisgear 24 will carry with it the pawl 20 and consequently the winding drum 11 so as to pull downward upon the trolley r'ope l0 and retrieve the trolley under the strong tension of the main retrieving spring. It will be observed however that whereas the main retrieving spring 16 is operating to rotate the hub 17 and the winding drum 11 continuously, .and also of course rotates the single tooth disk 40 continuously, yet the intermittent gear 43 rotates only intermittently whenever the tooth 41 0f the disk40 engages with the successive notches 42 of the intermittent gear, the intermittent gear in the meantime being locked by the engagement of the periphery of the disk 40 with the locking surfaces 44 of the intermittent gear. It will thus be apparent that the drum 11 may be given a number of revolutions under the influence of the retrieving spring whereas the intermittent gear moves only during a small portion of this revolution of the drum 11 or hub 17 and during the remaining time remains locked, whereas in my former patent the controlling gear moves constantly with the gear which rotates the main retrieving shaft and since this gear was limited to one revolution it was necessary to increase materially the size of the controlling gear in order to get the necessary number of revolutions of the main retrieving shaft. In the present improvements it will be seen that the intermittent controlling gear may be made .of small size and the number of notches a2 is such that the retrieving hub 17 may have seven rotations to one rotation of the controlling gear; and this gives an advantage of greater compactness and greater range of movement in addition to the other advantages which will be pointed out later.

It will be noted that as soon as the intermittent gear 48 and its locking cam 52 have started to rotate under the influence of the retrieving spring in the direction shown by the full line arrow in Fig. 3, the locking lug 50 which was raised to unlock the cam 52 will now be free to drop again as soon as the cam disk 25 is rotated from beneath the trip pawl'26, but the locking lug 50 will now rest upon the periphery of the locking cam 52 as soon as the latter has begun to turn and will only engage the shoulder 51 again after said locking cam has made one complete revolution, the disk 25 having no further lifting effect upon the latch plate 28 when the disk 25 is rotating in this reverse direction, since it is simply operating the trip pawl 26 against its spring 32 as heretofore explained, and thereby snapping past the pawl each revolution.

As above explained, the retrieving drum 17 may have seven revolutions before the controlling gear 43 again reaches locked position but such a number of rotations would be ample to retrieve the trolley to the desired extent, since this would produce seven revolutions of the driving drum which is more than would ordinarily be desired; but the present construction of the intermittent locking gear permits its adjustment in such manner that the amount of preliminary tension upon the main retrieving spring may be adjusted at will. In the actual use of this retriever it is in tended that the trolley rope shall be pulled down under the action of the main retrieving spring until the retrieving spring has lost its tension, or rather until the spring has lost its tensive strength to pull the trolley down against the ordinary trolley springs. However with the strength of the spring required for this retrieving purpose,

it is a common occurrence to have said spring weaken in its tensive strength and it is therefore desirable to wind the spring up to a greater tension when it has thus become weakened, and with the present improvements it is possible to set the retrieving spring to a greater initial amountv of tension by the preliminary adjustment of the intermittent controlling gear with reference to the single tooth disk 4*.0. To explain this, it will be assumed that the trolley has been retrieved and the retrieving spring has become unwound to its condition of no effective tension. To release the rope from the main retrieving spring, the operator grasps the rope and feeds inward a little slack which permits the main spring to become entirely devoid of tension and then the continued winding of the drum by its weaker, slack retrieving spring 1 1, causes the doubleheaded pawl 20 now to slide over the ratchet wheel at and release the pawl from the ratchet so that the drum and the trolley rope are now entirely disengaged from the retrieving spring and the trolley rope can now be pulled out at will to replace the trolley on the wire, the spring 14 of course merely becoming effective only for taking up the slack as usual. Thus the mere manipulation of the rope itself permits this disengagement of the rope from the retrieving spring so that the trolley can be immediately replaced on the wire without any further manipulation of looks or latches or other parts of the apparatus, which is of course highly desirable when speedy action is required to get the trolley back on the wire after it has left it. To rewind the spring the trolley rope 10 is now given a slight initial jerk to cause the pawl 20 by this sudden jerking movement to' engage the ratchet wheel 2% as described in my aforesaid patent, and then by the continued pulling outward on the rope 10 the winding drum 11 is rotated in the di rection shown by the dotted arrow in Figs. 2 and 3, and this consequently rotates the cam disk 25 in the direction of the dotted arrow in Fig. 3 and through the clutch flanges 15 and 16 rotates the single tooth disk 40 in the same direction, this rewinding movement being explained in said patent. Now by means of unscrewing the screwhead 60 (Fig. 1) screwed on the outer end of the shaft 13, the winding drum 11 and its plates 12 and 12 may be adjusted laterally upon the shaft 13 sufficiently to permit the single tooth disk 40 to be adjusted laterally enough to withdraw the tooth 41 from engagement with the intermittent locking gear 43 and said gear may then be rotated at will so that when the retrievingspring 16 is in this condition of no effective tension, any, desired one of the notches d2 may be brought opposite the tooth 41 so as to be engaged by said tooth when the parts are slid back to normal position'and the screw-head 6 re-tightened. It is of course to be understood that the fastening of the spring 16 to the hub 17 is such as to permit of this slight lateral shifting movement of the hub 17. Thus for example, supposing the locking gear 48 to have been turned or adjusted in this manner so that the tooth 41 engages the notch'marked on Fig. 3 as 42, then upon the rewinding of the main retrieving spring in the manner just explained and the rotation-of the single tooth disk 40 in the direction of the dotted line arrow in Fig. 3, it will be seen that on the continuous rotation of the hub 17 caused by the pulling outward of. the rope 10 as above ex plained, the single tooth 41 will after one complete rotation engage the notch 42 below the notch marked 42 and upon the next rotation will engage the notch which it is shown as engaging in Fig. 3, and upon the third rotation the single tooth 41 will be brought up against a positive stop 61 formed on the controlling gear 43, this positive stop simply taking theplace of a notch 42 so that the disk 40 can rotate no farther and it will then be impossible to pull out farther upon the. trolley rope 10, but upon giving slack upon the trolley rope the retrieving spring rotates the shaft backward until the single tooth 41 engages the notch which it is shown as engaging in Fig. '3, at which point the locking shoulder 51 on the cam disk 52 engages the locking lug 50 and thereby latches the controlling gear and Permits no further movement of the drum under the influence of the retrieving spring 16 until the latch plate 28 is lifted by the next operation of the sudden jumping of the trolley from the wire and the sequence of operations set forth above again takes place. It will be observed of course that in this positive stopping movement of the single tooth disk 40 .in the process of rewinding the main spring, the locking shoulder 51 is rotated beyond its latching position when the single tooth 41 brings up against the stop projection 61 but upon this settling back, so to speak, of the retrieving shaft to bring the tooth 41 into the adjacent notch, the locking shoulder 51 now settles back also against the locking lug 50.

It will thus be seen that when the trolley leaves the wire and the retrieving spring is made effective in the manner explained, the tension of the spring will of course be such as to cause two rotations of the shaft 13 at the end of which time the tooth 41 has arrived at the notch marked 42 and the tension of the spring 16 is exhausted. Now if the tension of the spring 16 has become weakened from constant use and it is desired to tighten it and thus bring the trolley down more sharply or to a greater extent, the intermittent locking gear is readjusted in the manner above explained by causing the tooth 41 to engage, for example, the notch above the one marked 4%, in which case upon the rewinding of the main spring, three revolutions can now be given to the hub 17 and drum 11 to bring the parts into latching position. The hub 17 is of course in reality given four revolutions before the tooth 41 brings up against the stop projection (31, but then the parts settle back as above ex plained by a reverse rotation of the hub 17 to the extent of one revolution before the latching takes place, thus leaving an effective three-revolution extent of movement of the main spring; andthis same process may be repeated to secure four, five, six or seven revolutions of the mainretrieving hub 17.

It will thus be seen that these devices present means for varying at will the preliminary tension of the main retrieving spring and also of giving a positive stop to let the operator know when the spring has been wound to the desired extent to bring the parts into latching position, and as soon as the parts have reached this latching position the ordinary slack controlling spring 14 again takes effect to control the slack in the rope 10 and the pawl 20 is withdrawn from latchin contact with the ratchet wheel 24 in the manner set forth in the aforesaid patent.

Vhile the form of mechanism here shown and described is admirably adapted to fulfil the objects primarily stated, it is to be understood that I do not care to confine myself. to any one form of embodiment of the invention here disclosed, for it is susceptible of embodiment in various forms all coming within the scope of the claims which follow.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure bv Letters Patent is:

1. In a retrieving mechanism, the combination with a spring motor for effecting the retrieving, a controlling member therefor movable into position to limit the tensioning of the spring motor, and an operating device connected with said motor for operating said controlling member during the rewinding of the spring motor, with means for adjustably mounting said operating de vice and said controlling member whereby they may be disengaged from each other and then reengaged into new correlative positions to increase or decrease the initial retrieving tension of said spring motor automatically according to said preliminary adjustment.

2. In a retrieving mechanism, the combination with a spring motor for effecting the retrieving, of a controlling member movable into position to control the latching of the motor; a latch member engaging said control member; connections including an operating device between the motor and the control member whereby the latching member holds the control member, and thereby the motor in check; means for releasing said latch member to permit the motor to retrieve; with means for adjustably mounting said operating device and said controlling member, whereby they may be disengaged from each other, and then reengaged into new correlative positions to increase or decrease the potential tension of the spring motor in its latched position, dependent upon said adjustment.

3. In a retrieving mechanism, the combination with a retrieving spring motor, a movable latch member for latching the same in tensive condition; of means independent of said latch member for afiording a positive stop for the setting movement of the motor into such tensive condition just beyond the latching point, with provisions whereby the latch member operates automatically at such point to relatch the motor.

4. In a trolley retriever, the combination with a retrieving spring and a latching member for automatically latching the same in tensive condition; of means for connecting said spring with the trolley rope to retrieve the trolley and including devices for disengaging the rope from the retrieving spring after retrieving and then connecting the rope to the spring for the re-winding or the spring by the reverse movement of the rope after retrieving; and means independent of said latching member for positively stopping this rewinding movement of the spring just beyond the proper latching point.

5. In a retrieving mechanism, the combination with a spring motor for-effecting a retrieving, a controlling member therefor movable into position to limit the tension of the spring motor, and an operating device connected with said motor for operating said controlling member during the re-winding of the spring motor; with means for adjustably mounting said operating device and said controlling member whereby they may be disengaged from each other and then reengaged into new correlative positions to increase or decrease the initial retrieving ten sion of the spring motor automatically according to said preliminary adjustment; and a stopping device for positively stopping the setting movement of the motor just beyond the latching point in combination with automatic means for latching the motor in its tensive condition.

6. In a retrieving mechanism, the combination with a retrieving spring motor, of an intermittently moving member, connections with said spring motor for operating said member and means for automatically latching said member to hold the motor in tensive condition.

7. In a trolley retriever, the combination with a retrieving spring, of an intermittently moving controlling member operated thereby; means for automatically latching said member to hold the spring in tensive condition; and means controlled by the trolley rope for unlatching said member to permit the retrieving.

8. In a trolley retrieving mechanism, the combination with a retrieving spring motor, of an intermittently moving member and connections with the motor for operating said member intermittently an automatic latching member for holding the intermittent member and thereby the motor in check; means operated by the trolley rope for moving said latching member to release the motor; and means for mounting said member with relation to its motor connection adapted for correlative adjustment to vary the initial tension of the motor.

9. In a trolley retriever, the combination with a retrieving spring, and intermediate connections between said spring and the trolley rope operating both to retrieve the trolley and to re-wind the spring by the reverse movement of the trolley rope; a controlling member connected with said intermediate means; a latching member operating upon said controlling member to hold the spring under tension; said controlling member being actuated intermittently by the continuous movement of said intermediate connecting means either in retrieving or rewinding; with means for adjustably mounting said controlling member and its actuating means whereby they may be disengaged from each other and reengaged into new correlative positions to vary the amount of movement of the controlling means upon the re-winding of the spring, and thereby to vary the amount of initial tension of the spring when said latching member operates upon said controlling member to latch the same.

10. In a trolley retriever, the combination with a retrieving spring, means connecting the same with the trolley rope for retrieving the latter, said connecting means including a single tooth gear wheel; a controlling gear wheel actuated intermittently by said single tooth gear wheel; and a latching member obstructing said controlling gear wheel and thereby holding the spring latched in position ready to retrieve.

11. In a trolley retriever, the combination with a retrieving spring, and means connecting the same with the trolley rope for retrieving the latter, said means including a single tooth gear wheel; a controlling gear wheel formed with spaced notches on its periphery separated by locking surfaces, said single tooth gear wheel engaging said spaced notches and operating and locking said controlling gear wheel intermittently; a stopping projection formed on said controlling gear wheel adjacent to one of said locking surfaces, whereby the rotation of the Controlling gear will eventually bring said stopping projection into the path of the single tooth to positively block said tooth 3 and prevent the further rotation of the single tooth wheel; and means cooperating with said controlling gear wheel for holding the retrieving spring in check.

12. In a trolley retriever, the combination 1 with a retrieving spring, and means connecting the same with the trolley rope for retrieving the latter, said means including a single tooth gear wheel; a controlling gear wheel formed with spaced notches arranged to be engaged by said single tooth gear wheel; means for automatically latching said controlling gear wheel to hold said spring in check; with means for adjustably mounting said single tooth gear and said controlling gear whereby they may be disengaged from each other and reengaged into new correlative positions to vary the number of spaced notches engaged by said single tooth gearwheel during the movement of said controlling gear back to latching position upon re-Winding of the retrieving spring. a b 18. In a trolley retriever, the combination with a retrieving spring, and means con; ne cting the same with the trolley rope for retrieving the latter, said means including a single tooth gear wheel; a controlling gear wheel formed with spaced notches arranged to be engaged by said single tooth gear wheel; a latch member for automatically latching said controlling gear wheel to hold said spring in check; and a stopping projection formed upon said controlling gear and located with reference to the latching position of the controlling gear so as to form a positive stop to the single tooth gear just beyond the proper latching point.

14. In a trolley retrieving mechanism, the combination with a retrieving spring, of connecting means between said spring and the trolley rope to retrieve the trolley, said connecting means being constructed to diS- engage itself by manipulation of the trolley rope after retrieving to thereby disconnect the rope from the retrieving spring to permit the trolley to be replaced in normal position, but said connecting devices then operable by a quick outward pull on the rope to connect the rope to the retrieving spring for, rewinding; and means for automatically latching the spring in its rewound tensive condition, said means comprising a positive stop for the setting movement of the spring into such tensive condition just beyond the proper latching point.

In testimony whereof I aliix my signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

IRWIN IV. SMITH. lVitnesses J. B. HAYWARD, Jos. P. CLEAL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, I). 0. 

